FAJEMIROKUN EBENEZER. The first lady, Patience Jonathan, has been accused of getting away with murder in the country and of being used as a political tool, with the tacit support of her husband – the first citizen, President Goodluck Jonathan. The person who made this allegation is someone we cannot ignore. While speaking at an international press conference on the state of the nation yesterday, Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, along with human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), identified the first lady as more than passively interested in political crisis in Rivers. Soyinka added that her “seizure of Port Harcourt for 11 days with full security apparatus in tow, indicated that there is something about that madam herself.” Falana and Soyinka condemned the crisis that had engulfed the Rivers State House of Assembly, when five out the 32 lawmakers attempted to impeach the speaker, Hon. Otelemaba Amachree. “This is getting to a state where an unelected person, a mere domestic appendage, can seize control of a place for 11 days and as a result of her presence, the governor of that state was told by policemen that you cannot pass here because the queen was there. What sort of jungle are we living in? “A person with no constitutional position is able to enjoy the full security apparatus of the state which is being denied a governor,” he said. He said his advice for the first lady was to be a lady before being a “first lady”. “My worry for her is that she should be a lady first before being a first lady. You cannot be a first lady without first being a lady. That is the only advice I have for her,” he said. Soyinka, who also accused the president of involvement in the political crisis in Rivers State, warned that if anything happened to the state Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, the blame should rest squarely at the president’s doorstep. “Vicarious responsibility must be laid at the door of President Jonathan if anything happens to Governor Amaechi. Ultimately, the responsibility is the president’s,” he said. Soyinka also said that contrary to earlier press reports, the governor’s residence was actually tear-gassed on Wednesday when the Joint Task Force and the police were called in to disperse clashing rival supporters of the state assembly members. “I read in the papers today (Thursday) that no tear gas was thrown into government premises. Let me tell you categorically that the government premises was tear-gassed. “I had a running commentary about what was happening with a junior colleague who was at the governor’s lodge at that time. “There was a siege on the governor’s lodge and he was tear-gassed. Anyone who said tear gas was not thrown into Amaechi’s lodge, is either ignorant or a liar.” He warned that the events unfolding in Rivers were worse than the Boko Haram menace, saying: “We are sitting down here pretending that nothing has happened, pretending that Boko Haram is serious; it is all we have to cope with but the ground under us is being eroded.” Erm, Rivers is more serious than Boko Haram. Really? Falana, perhaps unaware that the president had issued a statement on the Rivers crisis on Thursday, also described the situation as “infamy endorsed by the president”, stressing that Jonathan’s silence was an endorsement of the ugly situation in the state.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 19:55:33 +0000
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